The Less You Have to Sell, The Harder You Sell It

I know I’m late to the party to discuss the latest “historic” Mormon missionary announcements, but I have a son entering the next high school year as an upper class-man and so the realities of impending LDS mission concern me.

Maybe I should start with a reality check of what HASN’T changed since the early 80’s when I served a mission:

The minutiae of mission objectives, practices, rules, and timelines seem earth-shattering to members (especially those on missions or with family members about to leave). They rarely, if ever, impact potential converts. Probably the one exception that I can think of was President Kimball’s executive order that “every young man should serve a mission.” That greatly increased mission numbers and conversions.

LDS Missionary numbers don’t really impact retention rates, or congregational growth. Only 30% of LDS converts worldwide become active or participating members of the Church. Only 3-5% of active LDS members in North America are regularly involved in missionary work

All the hoopla and hype serve to pump up potential missionaries and their families to feel like they are doing something significant.

For a numbers-focused system like an LDS mission tends to be, there is very little reliance on statistics to make modifications where there would be the greatest success.

I can’t count the number of times I’ve heard that there is going to be some program change to impact member missionary participation or reactivation efforts. They don’t make a difference to the 70% of inactive Mormons, or to the 95 – 97% of members who don’t participate in member missionary work.

The truth remains that a mission is to solidify the indoctrination of its participants.

The second main function and purpose of a mission remains proselytizing and conversions (no matter how unsuccessful they are at making it stick). The biggest possible changes with the most impact for humanity at large remains elusive to the Mormon missionary program: Serving their fellow man through humanitarian aid.

Therefore, as is evident, it really doesn’t matter what changes are made or what new policies are revealed, just so long as it appear that the prophets are doing something significant behind the curtain. The Kool-Aid must be stirred. Nobody really cares what color it is.

Back when I was my son’s age the big deal was that a mission would be shortened from 2 years to 18 months. Inspiration from the prophets!

I think that lasted only a handful of years. Then, when I was actually out on my mission, it was revealed to reverse the previous inspiration and they switched back to 2 years. Fortunately, I got to choose. I initially opted to extend 3 months longer to make it a 21 month mission. I wisely shortened that back to 20 months. I could be one of the few former missionaries who served honorably for only 20 months.

Now, younger missionaries and technology enter the stage. What seems obvious to everyone else is still elusive… Putting tens of thousands of these young people to work doing service missions around the world! Can you imagine the impact on themselves and the communities in which they’d serve?

Not part of the plan. As far as I know the White Bible of mission rules still states:

Do not provide community service that isn’t approved by your mission president.

Do not provide more than 4 hours a week of community service.

Do not provide community service during the evening, weekend or holidays—those are peek proselytizing times.

Change THAT Mormons in high places and I’ll back my son on a mission! Until then, it’s just the same old, same old. Try pulling back on the selling and instead just “let your light so shine,” as someone you might want to listen to once said.

It’s been over a year since I moved from the pad where I was visited by missionaries and they (practically every new pair of missionaries) are still dropping by there looking for me (and even trying to talk to ex-roommate now)… even though I had told both the missionaries and the local bishop that I was moving and the roommate wasn’t (and still isn’t) interested in being visited. 😛 They’re finally succeeding in creeping the ex-roommate out from sheer persistence! 😀

Those original missionaries left your info in a notebook most likely. Subsequent missionaries are reading it and failing to update it. It kind of goes to show you how desperate things are for them. You’re the best lead they’ve had.

I’ve got mixed feelings about this. Probably because most of me is screaming ‘Exactly!’ and part of me shies away from the ‘indoctrination’ term. The church brings happiness to a lot of people. Not me. But a lot of people.

You are correct that the word “indoctrination” carries negative connotations but I believe in this case that it fits merely due to the fact that it is religious “doctrine” that is expected to be adapted without questioning.

Wikipedia’s definition: Indoctrination is the process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, cognitive strategies or a professional methodology (see doctrine).[1] It is often distinguished from education by the fact that the indoctrinated person is expected not to question or critically examine the doctrine they have learned.[2] As such the term may be used pejoratively, often in the context of education, political opinions, theology or religious dogma. The term is closely linked to socialization; in common discourse, indoctrination is often associated with negative connotations, while socialization refers to cultural or educational learning.

Perfectly stated. Even if they just did 6 months as service only and then off to proselytize. But you are right; the main goal is to indoctrinate the missionary. Imagine if they worked with other churches and humanitarian programs and saw how good people can be because they’re human, not because of their religion.

One of the biggest big box Christian churches where I live is one that seems utterly focused on selfless service. They run the local food bank and their entire message just seems to be help someone else today… It seems to be incredibly successful. I can’t imagine such a change for the LDS would hurt them at all.

Most of the Church’s missionaries are around twenty years old, though many members also volunteer to serve after they’ve retired. All prospective missionaries turn in applications to Church headquarters and they receive a call to a specific mission around the world. They spend a few weeks in a training center where some of them learn a new language and all of them rigorously study and practice teaching the gospel. Then they set off to their assigned locations and begin their service. Missionaries’ lives are completely dedicated to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. They pay their own way and put off school, dating and work for two years in order to focus entirely on doing the Lord’s work.

You must not have read much of my posts because I obviously know all this…and I certainly don’t see any of the good other than, as I mentioned, solidifying the indoctrination of the participants. It’s pretty evident that someone “completely dedicated to sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ” does little to nothing to actually “serve” humanity or better someone else’s life in any measurable way.